Can Dan Stevens Really Sing? There’s Nothing Beastly About The Actor’s Voice

BUSTLE
SHARE
ByJOHNNY BRAYSON

Anyone who was concerned that the live action Beauty and the Beast movie would be a flop can stop worrying. The film notched the sixth-highest opening weekend of all-time by taking in over $174 in its first frame, and it's on pace to easily be Disney's most successful live action reboot yet. The film's success owes a lot to its impressive cast, especially Dan Stevens and Emma Watson, who sing and dance their way through the spectacle. But how much of it was real and how much was movie magic? Can Dan Stevens really sing?

Despite his face as the Beast being computer generated and performed through motion capture, that really is Stevens' voice you hear belting out the movie's famous tunes. The actor apparently had done a bit of singing in his youth, but it had been a long time since he had actually sung when the time came to train his voice for the film. "Singing was a relatively new thing to me," the 34-year-old told People. "I’d sung at school and when I was younger, but in my 20s I [hadn’t] sung as extensively so reengaging my voice, retraining the voice, was a big challenge." Check out Stevens in action below, singing alongside Watson (who also sang for real) in a scene from the film.



https://www.bustle.com/p/can-dan-stevens-really-sing-theres-nothing-beastly-about-the-actors-voice-45990

Dan Stevens: 5 things to know about the 'Beast'

NBC NEWS
Angela Stevens
March 10, 2017

We are just days away from the highly-anticipated debut of Disney’s newest live-action film "Beauty and the Beast." Emma Watson stars as Belle while Dan Stevens takes on the role of the Beast.

Stevens recently stopped by ABC News’ “Popcorn with Peter Travers.”

Here are 5 things we learned about Stevens

1. He learned to walk and dance on stilts for his role as the Beast

“Emma is small. She’s shorter than me. She’s a petite lady. And that extra 10 inches just accentuated the height,” Stevens said. He added that the stilts required some getting used to.

“She’s a great dancer but she was terrified of me that I was going to break her toes in these contraptions that I was wearing,” said Stevens. “Fortunately we learned the dance on the ground. As I always say to my kids, if you think you can fly, always test it taking off from the ground. So we learned it on the ground and then worked our way up to these stilts,” he said. Then they found their rhythm.

“Once we got the footwork down, the dancing on the stilts was surprisingly easy. I thought it was going to be a lot more tragic than it actually was," he remarked. "But once we broke through that sort of fear barrier, it was fantastic. There’s something about the waltz that we had to learn and the way that dance is designed to make you feel, this whirling ecstasy, it’s fantastic. Even on stilts.”

2. Why the prince was turned into a beast

“He’s a rich kid, the son of a billionaire, living in his tower, treating women as objects. He’s not a very nice man really," Stevens said. "He doesn’t really understand love on a sort of elemental level. He thinks these sort of play things can come and go and it’ll be fine. He has a sense of entitlement."

3. For the first time, the Beast gets his own special song

In many of the princess movies, the princess gets her big moment to belt out a rousing number. But this time, a special song was penned by songwriter Alan Menken for the Beast. Menken is best known for his scores for previous Disney films such as "Aladdin," "The Little Mermaid" and "Pocahontas." Menken also scored the animated version of "Beauty and the Beast."

READ MORE HERE: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/dan-stevens-things-beast/story?id=45953330

Who will be the next James Bond? Latest odds on Tom Hardy, Aidan Turner and Michael Fassbender as bets roll in

THE SUN
By Hannah Shaw
7th March 2017, 10:57 am  Updated: 7th March 2017, 11:31 am

The contest to play James Bond is still anyone’s game with a number of suave men in the running.

While Aidan Turner has been the bookies favourite for quite some time, he is currently being pipped to the post by Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender.

Sun Bets are currently taking bets on over 50 male actors to take on the role of James Bond as Daniel Craig’s replacement.

The favourite is currently split between Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender, who both have odds of 11/4.

Trailing behind are War & Peace’s James Norton, Poldark’s Aidan Turner and Luther’s Idris Elba, but what are their chances?

Who’s in the running for the next Bond?

Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy has fuelled the rumour mill by staying quiet when questioned on the role
Age: 39

Sun Bets odds: 11/4

Where do we know him from? Actor Tom Hardy is no stranger to the big screen having appeared recently in Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant and Legend.

The British actor has recently appeared in the BBC series Taboo and has fuelled Bond rumours after refusing to comment on whether he would like to take over from Daniel Craig, for fear of jinxing his chance.

Michael Fassbender

Michael Fassbender made his Alien debut in the 2012 prequel, Prometheus
Age: 39

Sun Bets odds: 11/4

Where do we know him from? Fans may recognise Fassbender from 2012 film Prometheus, and the star has hit the big screen again with his role in Assassin’s Creed.

Sun Bets place the actor’s odds at 20/1, however in an interview with GQ Fassbender said: “As an acting role, I think Daniel has done such a cracking job in this age group.

“I think the franchise needs something new.”

James Norton

James Norton made an impression on viewers during his stint on BBCs Happy Valley
Age: 31

Sun Bets odds: 7/2

Where do we know him from? Norton has an impressive accolade of TV credits behind him.

Viewers may recognise James from BBC’s Happy Valley, where he played the role of Tommy Lee Royce.

James has also starred in Granchester, Black Mirror and War & Peace.

Aidan Turner

Aidan has become a sex symbol thanks to his topless action in Poldark
Age: 33

Sun Bets odds: 4/1

Where do we know him from? Most viewers will recognise Aidan as heartthrob Ross Poldark.

Aidan started his career on stage but soon found fame on the big screen after appearing in The Hobbit trilogy.

The 33 year old took the lead in Bond odds back in August, however refused to comment on the rumours at MCM Expo.



READ MORE HERE:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/1703522/next-james-bond-latest-odds-tom-hardy-michael-fassbender/

Beauty and the Beast's Luke Evans: 'Emma Watson has made Belle a strong, 21st century woman' "It's quite brilliant, what she's done with the role."

DIGITAL SPY
BY NAOMI GORDON
24 FEBRUARY 2017

He may play a narcissistic, testosterone-fuelled baddie in Beauty and the Beast, but in real life, Luke Evans was bowled over by Emma Watson's "brilliant" portrayal of Belle as a "strong, 21st century woman".

The actor takes on brutish love rival Gaston in Disney's live-action adaptation, and speaking to Digital Spy on the set of Noel Clarke's upcoming thriller 10 x 10, he said: "I'm very proud of her achievement in the film - not just her singing ability, but how she's portrayed Belle, and how she's brought her into a 21st century, strong woman."

The Girl on the Train star has a background in musical theatre and explained that, while singing as Gaston wasn't easy, it was a "total joy" to accomplish.

"I wouldn't say it was easy singing as Gaston, but it was very enjoyable," he continued. "I love singing, and Gaston's songs are so great, and they're huge numbers, and so funny. It was just a total joy."

Meanwhile, Luke will star opposite True Detective's Kelly Reilly in Suzi Ewing's first feature-length film 10 x 10 - written by Brotherhood's Noel Clarke

http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a820374/beauty-and-the-beast-luke-evans-emma-watson-belle-strong-21st-century-woman/

Dowager Countess to outlive Downton Abbey... even though character played by Dame Maggie Smith must be 110 by now

DAILY MAIL
By CHRIS HASTINGS FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 18:59 EST, 2 May 2015 | UPDATED: 09:05 EST, 3 May 2015

She is as much a part of Downton Abbey as its Bath Stone walls – and just as imposing. So it is only right that the redoubtable Dowager Countess of Grantham will remain a constant of the ITV show right until the very end.

By some reckoning the formidable Crawley family matriarch, played by Dame Maggie Smith, would be 110 at the time the final series is set. But it seems that even the Grim Reaper is so intimidated by the prospect of her withering putdowns that the character will not be killed off.

Lord Fellowes, the Oscar winning creator of the show confirmed the news, saying: ‘Maggie will never die!’

The disclosure that Violet will survive to the end of the final episode – to air on Christmas Day – will be welcomed by the show’s 120 million fans worldwide.

The Dowager Countess is by far the most popular character and has remained stubbornly alive even though pundits have been predicting her demise ever since the show launched in 2010.

And it has been suggested that the Dowager Countess’s death would be the obvious way of bringing the curtain down on the global franchise.

It would certainly be her time. Downton Abbey’s first series was set in 1912, when the character was already in her dotage. The forthcoming sixth series is set more than a decade later.

And he revealed: ‘All the cast we said goodbye to in series five are all popping up in the final series.
‘It will end on Christmas Day. It will be a two-hour special on Christmas night. I am pleased with the way the whole series is coming on actually.’

He declined to be drawn on specifics about the plots, although fans are hoping that butler Carson and housekeeper Mrs Hughes will finally tie the knot following his proposal in last year’s Christmas Day episode.

Fellowes said he wouldn’t write his new American television series The Gilded Age, set among the high- society families of New York in the late 19th Century, until he had finally completed work on the last scripts for Downton.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3065753/Dowager-Countess-outlive-Downton-Abbey-character-played-Dame-Maggie-Smith-110-now.html#ixzz3Z6RTuJa2 
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

James McAvoy: Dominance of Rich-Kid Actors in the U.K. Is "Damaging for Society"

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
by Abid Rahman 2/10/2015 12:18am PST

James McAvoy has waded into the ongoing debate in the U.K. on the current success and dominance of privately educated actors, telling the Herald of Scotland that if the current trend continues it would be "damaging for society."

The Scottish actor, who paid his way through drama school by working in a bakery, was at pains not to criticize the success of privately educated actors, but he was worried that it wasn't representative of Britain as it is today.

"Whenever we talk about this, we have to be very very clear. There's a lot of posh actors that have been to boarding school and all that who are feeling very embattled, sort of cornered," he said, adding: "[N]obody has got anything against an actor who is posh and is doing really well."

But McAvoy was concerned that people from all walks of life are not getting the same opportunities to work in the arts, and his chief worry was about how this will become a bigger problem five or ten years from now. 

If the trends are allowed to continue, McAvoy said, "That's a frightening world to live in, because as soon as you get one tiny pocket of society creating all the arts, or culture starts to become representative not of everybody but of one tiny part, and that's not fair to begin with, but it's also damaging for society."

Private schools such as Eton and Harrow are some of the oldest and most elite in the U.K. They often produce future leaders and captains of industry, but in recent years they have begun to churn out stellar acting talent. 

The Eton-educated Eddie Redmayne (a classmate of Prince William) and Harrow-educated Benedict Cumberbatch, who are both in the running for the best actor Oscar, are perhaps the most telling examples of the dominance of "posh" actors. But there's also Dominic West (Eton, classmate of Prime Minister David Cameron), Damian Lewis (Eton), Tom Hiddleston (Eton), Henry Cavil (Stowe), Jamie Campbell Bower (Bedales), Tom Hardy (Reed), Matthew Goode (Exeter) and Dan Stevens (Tonbridge), among others.

And it's not just the guys. A whole generation of British actresses are seemingly disproportionately from so-called posh schools, including Rosamund Pike (Badminton), Alice Eve (Bedales), Juno Temple (Bedales), Carey Mulligan (Woldingham), Kate Beckinsale (Godolphin and Latymer), Imogen Poots (Latymer), Emilia Clarke (St Edward's), Emily Blunt (Hurtwood House) and Rebecca Hall (Roedean).

READ MORE HERE: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/james-mcavoy-dominance-rich-kid-772139

From Benedict Cumberbatch to Idris Elba, Americans can't resist a suave British man

THE GUARDIAN
Brian Moylan
Thursday 6 November 2014 16.12 EST

Composite of English actors: Tom Hiddleston, Jonny Lee Miller, Idris Elba, Damian Lewis, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dan Stevens. Photograph: Rex Features

Maybe we should blame it on Hugh Grant, that floppy-haired, bumbling star of so many romantic comedies of the 90s and 00s, including Love, Actually (which goes into endless repetition as the holiday season approaches). It just seems like Americans cannot get enough of posh British dudes – though our tastes seem to be changing with the times.

The latest to grace our shores on a regular basis is Tom Hiddleston, most widely know for playing Loki in The Avengers and two Thor movies next to Chris Hemsworth (the pile of Australian muscle is another type Americans love, but that is a whole different study entirely). Hiddleston is slated to star in The Night Manager, a British spy miniseries based on a John le Carré novel, next year for AMC. The London-born actor is sure to set hearts aflame with his classic good looks, upper-class accent, and Eton-bred affectations as well as his ability to negotiate the highest level of espionage.

This seems to be a bit of a divergence from the fey British blokes from the past that we love. While there’s still plenty of love for Colin Firth, he and Grant were the kind of obsequious Brits who would fade into the background and mumble into their shoes about how they felt their souls were connected to Renée Zellweger (an American posing as one of the Queen’s subjects and therefore a cypher for all the American women in the audience). But Hiddleston is playing a spy. He’s a man of action and danger – and those are our new English boyfriends.

Look at Benedict Cumberbatch. Though he disappointed plenty of his ardent fans with news of his recent engagement, he’s still the hottest Brit on American television. He is Sherlock Holmes, a powerful, master-of-the-universe-type who is not only plugged into the highest echelons of British intelligence but also solves all those crimes. We even gave him an American Emmy for his troubles. Cumberbatch also plays Khan in Star Trek – like Loki, a villain and brilliant schemer who holds vast resources of physical and magical power.

And there’s more. We have Jonny Lee Miller on Elementary saving American lives one crime at a time. There’s Idris Elba’s Emmy-nominated turn on Luther, and David Tennant’s cranky Scottish cop on Broadchurch, both modest hits on our shores. There are even some British actors hiding out as Americans, like Rupert Friend as a hard-nosed CIA agent on Homeland and Dominic West as a take-charge romantic lead on The Affair. (Vulture has a handy guide for telling all these high-class types apart.) And let us not forget about Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey, the show which very well might have incited this recent bout of Anglophilia. Though his character Matthew Crawley died in a car crash he is now trying to take his career to the next level by storming Hollywood.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/nov/06/benedict-cumberbatch-idris-elba-americans-cant-resist-a-posh-british-man

Dan Stevens: Fantastic Fest Review: 'The Guest' is Cool & Kick Ass, As It Should Be

FIRST SHOWING
by Jeremy Kirk
September 23, 2014



Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett are Fantastic Fest staples thanks to their surprise smash You're Next in 2011. The movie matched a cool, riotous attitude with a home invasion sub-genre that had been poking its head at horror audiences for years. Now they've again brought a cool, riotous attitude in droves. The Guest is more action than horror, but the edge is still there. Aided by Wingard's enormous talent for mood, an '80s vibe that isn't just pink neon and a synthesized score, and a rousing performance from Dan Stevens, The Guest delivers a sharp, swift punch to the chest of bland action and banal thrillers. Read on!

Stevens plays David, a soldier just returning home from a long tour. His first stop upon returning to American soil is to the family of Caleb, a fellow soldier who died in combat and who David promised he would check in on his family. At first, the family (mother Laura played by Sheila Kelley, father Spencer played by Leland Orser, teenaged daughter Anna played by Maika Monroe, and young son Luke played by Brendan Meyer) are unsure what to make of David, this friendly and seemingly peaceful stranger who's just appeared on their doorstep. Laura, still jostled by the loss of her oldest son, jumps at the chance to welcome David into their home. Slowly but surely, the other members of the family fall in favor for the new addition, but you know the drill. David's secret past is about to catch up to him, and more than a few innocent people are gonna get into the crosshairs.

As with You're Next, Barrett's screenplay moves quickly, the skills David picked up while serving coming into fast, impactful play against a couple of school bullies who have targeted Luke. The film makes no bones about the badassery stored inside David, but it finds its room to breathe in developing his connection with the individual members of the family. They each have their own secrets, normal, banal secret that quietly haunt most, American families. David's secret, however, is a ripper of a revelation, and, also like You're Next, its cool, kinetic drive keeps you guessing where the next turn is going to lead you. The Guest's kinetic pace is assisted tremendously by Wingard, a director who finds a way of pouring on the slickness and style with minimal help from a modest budget.

Regardless, the action that kicks in throughout the film is as polished as anything big-budget Hollywood has to offer. The explosions may not be quite as big, but damned if they don't still pack a cool kick. Likewise, Wingard cranks the atmosphere volume up a few notches, Steve Moore's poppy and hip score adding to the coolness of it all. The mood gives The Guest's Halloween setting a supporting nudge for genre fans and providing a nostalgic, somewhat tongue-in-cheek mood for the '80s-inspired thriller.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.firstshowing.net/2014/fantastic-fest-review-the-guest-is-cool-kick-ass-as-it-should-be/

Downton Abbey: Behind the scenes of series 5 On location at Highclere Castle for the filming of Downton Abbey

THE TELEGRAPH
By Chloe Fox9:15AM BST 13 Sep 2014



In her temporary tent outside Highclere Castle in Berkshire, Lisa Heathcote, the home economics adviser on Downton Abbey, is peeling countless quail eggs to be served at the cocktail party – a reception being thrown by Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), the Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire – that is being filmed inside the house.

Things are going well. The sun is out. Everyone is happy. And then there is a problem. The ice in the cocktail glasses is making too much noise. Is there perhaps any rubber ice that they could use instead?

Inside the Victorian castle the atmosphere is hushed. Candlelight, shimmering beads and elegant grandeur are the order of the day. Above the murmur of polite, cocktail-party conversation, a familiar booming voice announces the arrival of each new guest.

Jim Carter, aka Mr Carson the butler, is the physical embodiment of everything that its estimated global audience of 150 million viewers (100 million of them in China alone) has come to love about Downton Abbey: dignified, reassuring, and not quite knowable.

Downton Abbey is a phenomenon. Not since Brideshead Revisited more than three decades ago has a televised foray into the lives of an aristocratic English family held such sway over its audiences.

When it first aired on ITV, on a Sunday night in September 2010, Downton Abbey – written by Julian Fellowes, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Robert Altman's Gosford Park – had a consolidated figure of 9.2 million viewers, instantly making it the most successful new drama on any channel.

Here was something that had all the magic ingredients that Sunday night audiences wanted: period escapism, an original storyline – and Dame Maggie Smith. ‘We knew that we had very good scripts and a top-calibre cast,’ the producer Liz Trowbridge says. ‘But we never in our wildest dreams thought that it would be as successful as it has been. Our dream, when we first set out, was to make three series – before, during and after the First World War – to explore the social history of a house and the people who lived in it.

That was all.’ Three series came and went. Ratings remained high. Devotees hung on every plot twist. Would Lady Mary Crawley (Lord Grantham’s eldest daughter, played by Michelle Dockery) end up with her cousin Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens)? Would Lord Grantham kiss the housemaid? Did Bates, Lord Grantham’s loyal valet (Brendan Coyle), murder his wife? And what possessed O’Brien (Lady Cora, Lord Grantham’s wife’s maid, played by Siobhan Finneran) to leave that bar of soap where she did? With the reassuring feel of an adaptation but the content of a soap opera, Downton Abbey was television gold.

So, what can we expect from season five? From spending one day on set, it is frustratingly difficult to glean anything at all (except, perhaps, that there seems to be some tension simmering between Lord and Lady Grantham). Cast and crew, briefed to within an inch of their lives, are tight-lipped.

‘My friends just know not to ask me any more,’ Brendan Coyle says with a smile. ‘If I told you, I’d have to kill you,’ says Lily James, who plays the mischievous, fun-loving cousin of the Crawleys, Lady Rose Maclaire.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/downton-abbey/11090761/Downton-Abbey-Behind-the-scenes-of-series-5.html

Videos - Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Capaldi, Ringo Starr acceptance speeches from GQ awards 2014

(warning - for some bizarre reason Dan Stevens swears a lot while introducing Benedict Cumberbatch, so if you are offended, I'm sorry)

(video) Benedict Cumberbatch joins Downton Abbey cast & check out his dancing in Star Trek Blooper!

UNREALITY PRIME
September 3rd, 2014 by Anna Howell.

Of all the people in the world who were literally born to be in Downton Abbey, we are sure you would agree that Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch is top of the list.

However, with his commitments playing the iconic London detective in the hugely popular Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss modern day twist on the classic works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as starring in just about every blockbuster film cinema has to offer, the prospect seemed only a dream!

But now, it would seem, he has found the time to join the cast of the show!

Before you get too excited, he only joined them on a trip to the cinema, but we would like to hope that they spent this time trying to persuade him what a fantastic idea this would be (despite him previously branding the show as f*****g atrocious!)

Cumberbatch, who picked up the award for Actor of the Year at the recent QC awards recently, joined the likes of Allen Leech, who plays Tom Branson in the hit ITV period drama and his Sky Sports host girlfriend Charlie Webster, and Jim Carter who plays Mr Carson to cheer on Dan Stevens at the premier of his new film The Guest.

Meanwhile new footage of Benedict Cumberbatch has emerged of him, and his fellow Star Trek: Into Darkens cast mates, larking about on set.

Take a look at our favourite Englishman busting some moves in space in the clip below:

READ MORE HERE; http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/hilarious-benedict-cumberbatch-dancing-set-star-trek-video/

Dan Stevens, Ricky Gervais, dinosaurs and London are the stars of the Night at the Museum 3 trailer

RADIO TIMES
By Susanna Lazarus
Wednesday 30 July 2014 at 06:01PM



The action-packed footage also features familiar faces Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams and more...

The first trailer for Night at the Museum 3 has landed and there's a lot going on.
Let's start with the new additions – Dan Stevens, Ben Kingsley and Rebel Wilson – who all appear in the footage. Stevens has returned to his Downton roots, employing a plummy accent to play Sir Lancelot who defends the group from a giant dinosaur skeleton entombed in cavernous museum corridors.

Meanwhile, Wilson is the museum's bored security guard (with a dodgy cockney accent), while Kingsley appears as an Egyptian Pharaoh.


READ MORE HERE; http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-07-30/dan-stevens-ricky-gervais-dinosaurs-and-london-are-the-stars-of-the-night-at-the-museum-3-trailer

Downton’s Dan Stevens Goes Bad In The Guest Teaser

YAHOO.COM
Ben Falk
UK Senior Movies Writer
27 Jun 2014

First he lost all that weight. Then he moved to America. Now the man formerly known as Downton Abbey’s Matthew Crawley is brandishing a gun.

But don’t worry, it’s all for his new movie, indie chiller ‘The Guest’, in which Dan plays a soldier who shows up at the door of a family claiming to be friends with their late son, who died in combat.

They welcome him in, but then people start dying. Is he the culprit, or is there something more mysterious going on?

Already receiving good buzz in the States, the film comes from the people behind cult horror movie ‘You’re Next’.




READ MORE HERE: https://uk.yahoo.com/movies/downtons-dan-stevens-goes-bad-in-the-guest-90060905391.html

Downton Abbey Spoilers – Guess who dies this series & Dame Maggie Smith tells Emma Watson to “get a grip”

UNREALITY PRIME

Tweet

June 22nd, 2014 by Anna Howell.

 

Well this is certainly good news for fans of Downton Abbey – Bosses at the ITV show have declared that they will stop killing off major characters!

Of course in any TV series, especially dramas, you expect to witness a little heartache and loss, but what you don’t expect is two major characters being killed off in ridiculously similar circumstances within weeks of each other!

But, this is precisely what happened in Downton Abbey during its third series when Lady Sybil, the youngest daughter of the Earl and lady Grantham, died shortly after giving birth to her daughter.

The death was certainly unexpected and sent shock waves through the nation, so imagine our surprise when during the Christmas Day Special that very same year her brother in law Matthew Crawley was killed in a car accident on his way home from visiting his wife and new-born son in the hospital.

Of course the second death was out of the writers hands as Dan Stevens, the actor who played Matthew had decided to quit the role after his initial contract was up for renewal.

(oops, wrong lover)

Death was the only option given Matthew’s place and standing in the great estate, 

which lead us to start panicking about more deaths, should more actors wish to leave.

But fear not as the powers that be have said that, so as not to risk losing viewers, they have put a ban on major character deaths in the future, so Lesley Nicol has revealed to The Daily Star newspaper!

Speaking of Dame Maggie Smith it would seem that she might have picked up a few of her character’s tough love habits as Emma Watson has revealed that she was told to “get a grip” by the legendary star.

According to Watson, who starred with her in all of the Harry Potter movies, it was Dame Maggie who helped her get over her fear of watching herself on screen, as she has been explaining in a recent interview with Hello magazine. Emma recalled that she told Dame Maggie that she didn’t know whether she could watch any of the scenes back, to which Maggie told her to “get a grip”.

READ MORE HERE: http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/downton-abbey-kill-major-characters-dame-maggie-smiths-acting-advice-emma-watson/

Downton Abbey Season 4 an Even Bigger Hit

GPB BLOG
By Rosemary Jean-Louis
Posted March 27, 2014 9:01am (EDT)



Season four of “Downton Abbey” was a bigger hit than season 3. An average of 13.2 million viewers watched this season reinforcing Downton's status as PBS’ highest-rated drama in history.

By contrast, season 3 amassed 11.5 million viewers.

Airing “Sherlock” after Downton was a good strategy. The average audience for “Sherlock” increased 46 percent from season 2.

Downton’s Social Media Takeover

According to Social Guide Intelligencer, Downton generated more than 280,000 tweets and 35.6 million impressions. These came out despite competition from Super Bowl XLVIII, the Golden Globes and the Olympics.



No Matthew, No Problem

Some critics and fans speculated that the absence of Dan Stevens, in the form of Matthew Crawley, would spell the end of the show. (Fans are still sore about his unexpected tragic death at the end of season 3. Stevens still apologizes for his departure in interviews.)

The absence of cousin Matthew didn’t repel fans at all. Many fans gave season four of “Downton Abbey” a thumbs up.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.gpb.org/blogs/desperate-for-downton/2014/03/27/downton-abbey-season-4-an-even-bigger-hit

Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery Happy To Lose Husband Matthew Crawley With Dan Stevens' Departure

HUFF ENTERTAINMENT
Caroline FrostBecome a fan
Caroline.Frost@huffingtonpost.com



'Downton Abbey's Lady Mary Crawley may have been left reeling from the sudden death of her husband Matthew Crawley, but actress Michelle Dockery admits she was far more agreeable to the changes it brought to her character.

"We all had that choice to stay or go for Series four and five," she tells HuffPostUK. "I respected Dan Stevens’ decision, we all did. There’s positives to everything. I think for the storyline, I wonder where it could have gone with Mary and Matthew had Dan decided to stay. Happiness... ?" she shrugs, acknowledging that such contentment doesn't make for great drama.

Instead, viewers have watched Lady Mary sleepwalk around the house for the last series, with Michelle glad she's finally emerging from her year of widowed gloom.

"Towards the end of Series 4, Mary had a little bit of mojo coming back," she laughs. "That sharper wittier edge coming back. Her sense of humour is returning, so I’m really excited to see where it goes."

In the film 'Non-Stop', in cinemas this week, Michelle acts alongside Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore in an airborne thriller, where they must work to save the passengers' lives when one traveller goes very much rogue. As air stewardess Nancy, Michelle is warm and purry, a million air miles from Lady Mary's porcelain veneer, something Michelle seems relieved about...

READ MORE HERE: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/24/michelle-dockery-downton-abbey-lady-mary-crawley_n_4846568.html